This week we have a cute Professor Layton-looking bejeweled game, big boys on the big screen and a hopping girl in a jumping kingdom.
Color Pieceout – Layton With Jewels
Color Pieceout lookscute. The art style and overall tone looks pretty dang close to the Professor Layton series. While also a puzzle game, it’s one of a different variety. It instead features jewel matching.
Based off what little I’ve seen of the game in motion, it seems like there may also be some adventure elements. There’s some inventory looking thing. Or at least some way to keep track of evidence behind a mystery.
Overall though, I’m pretty sure my interest here has less to do with the game design and more of just its cute characters. I also love this like Spike Spiegel look-alike.
Ninjala – Ancient Foam Bat Techniques
https://youtu.be/6RFsAJ6rkdk
Continuing with off-brand looking games, Ninjala looks like GungHo trying to siphon off part of Splatoon’s style for a 3rd person brawler.
I believe it was announced a year or so ago, but it’s really hard to know what to make of it since they haven’t really shown much uncut gameplay.
Though this trailer does show off some interesting mechanics, such as walking on walls, giving players much more surface space to use in battle. Is it only competetive? I’m not really sure, but it could win me over depending on the depth of content and customization here.
It was pushed to 2020, but I’ll be curious to see what becomes of it and if it gains any sort of traction. I thought Splatoon was going to bomb pretty hard. Obviously, I was wrong.
Imprisoned Palm – Handsome Prison Buddies
Whenever I see an interesting mobile game, I almost always think about how much I’d like for it to be on like it to appear on a traditional platform in some way. Either Console, PC or whatever. Despite being a millennial, I don’t like using my phone.
Imprisoned Palm may not benefit from physical controls much, but at the very least it does package together the episodic chapters into, seemingly, a complete package on the Switch.
It’s hard to say whether or not I’d act actually purchasing this, but I do think it tickles the same curiosity as Love Plus for me. So at the very least, I would love to see how they handle the interactions with your console-trapped boy.
Despite the popularity of Otome games though, I’m not sure if Capcom is quite in the market to bring this one over. As far as I know, there’s no existing English translation. But I can hope.
I still need to sit down with Love Plus though, so I’m in no rush.
Now if only that Castlevania mobile game would get a console version when it comes out.
Hopping Girl Kokane Jumping Kingdom – I Hop Hop Hop and I Jump Jump Jump
I don’t know if I have a ton to say about Hopping Girl Kokane Jumping Kingdom. I think the gameplay is pretty self explanatory. But I do think there’s a particular charm to this level of budget of Japanese indie games.
The gameplay concepts don’t seem that far off from something you’d see at like a Comiket or something, but budget is just high enough that there’s a layer of visual polish.
As much as I like Super Panda Ball, the environments can be overly simple. It doesn’t necessarily hurt the game, but it does feel like a harder sell.
Hopping Girl feels like a nice mid-point here. The concept is simple but the graphics have just enough flair.
I also dig that you can choose different outfits.
World End Heroes – Make It Flashy
World End Heroes is one of those mobile games I continue to see pop up, but haven’t really taken the time to explore much deeper than the churn of videos Square Enix puts out for it.
Given how often I’ve been talking about Otome stuff, you might think I’m here for the boys. But really it’s just that the game has some flashy battles.
What makes a good battle animation is pretty hard to quantify. I love Skies of Arcadia’s, but what makes them special? Maybe it’s a balance of brevity, flair and impact?
World End Heroes is definitely on the longer side, but I do like the mid-attack conversation that happens between two of the party members.
That being said, I have no idea how much input the player has here.
